Incredible Week

My Family,

Another week added to the records. Last week I never would have thought I could have a better week. But.... this last week has proved that wrong! First of all... thank you SO much for all your emails! Chandler: I laughed so hard when you said you were on the "jon!" I love you Chandler! Claire: I'm so excited to hear about the things you do in school this year! And Grace: I'm so proud of you for getting your very own email! How awesome! I absolutely LOVED the quotes! I wrote them down in my planner to memorize! I love my family so much! Every week it grows and grows and I know its because I'm serving a mission. I would give my own life for every one of you. That is how much I love you! Now about this AMAZING WEEK!!!!! First of all... Elder López left and we got a new companion! He is from Arkansas and has been out a year and is so awesome! His name is Elder Carr. The change in companionships helped to boost motivation and productivity! This last week we put four homes on date for a total of 10 people! Their date is the 25th of September! How exciting! Their names are Cecilia, Angeles, Angel, Andres, Otilia, Alberto, Samuel, Poncho, Esau, and Celia. This month should be a very good month!
The guy that texted you has become a lifelong friend. I've cried with him and laughed with him. He is the high council rep. for the Spanish branch and gives us rides probably for 10 hours a week. He is an amazing man! One day we had a meeting with him and in his car it said it was 109! So he took a picture of it and jokingly I said, "You should send it to my mom!" Then he said..... "What's her number?" Too funny! I really do love him though! He helped me so much with homesickness and stuff like that!
Any other questions that I'm forgetting to answer? Today at Wal-Mart I bought rechargeable batteries and a charger and am pretty excited about those! Save a little money here in the states and not have to buy camera batteries in Mexico! Speaking of Mexico... I think it should be coming soon... I feel it. But.. Who knows? I'm happy where I'm at right now and just trying to finish the work the Lord has for me while I'm here! Our area is coming alive and we're having so much success. It’s a blessing to be a part of it! Speaking of success!!!!! Awesome work with Vicky! How cool! Sounds like that is going amazing! Real quick I wanted to share a cool story I was given a couple of days ago... It’s about a soldier and its a letter he wrote home to his parents:


"Dear Mom and Dad,
Yesterday we were assigned to fly support for some of the outlying firebases. While there I learned that my good friend Jay had gone out on patrol 3 days ago and was now presumes missing. I asked our pilot it there was any way we could help in the search. The pilot understood my concern. He said he would do whatever he could. It was not until later that day that we felt that we had found them.
As we flew over I could see bodies everywhere. My heart cried out as we tried to land. As we did so we came under ground fire and were forced to land a short distance away. I pleaded with the pilot to let me go out myself and try to bring back my friend. He said, "We'll pick you up at 0600 am tomorrow, but I don' think it'll be worth it. Your friend and everyone else are probably already dead, and you're just throwing your life away." As the chopper flew away, Mom, my heart cried out with so much fear I began to cry.
I crawled on my belly half the night and somehow I managed to reach them. One by one I searched for Jay until I found him. It took me all night to drag him back and at times I could carry him on my shoulders till I could no longer walk. Finally somehow we made it back to the chopper. Captain with tears in his eyes, looked at me so tenderly and said, "I told you it wasn't worth it, your friend is dead and now you are wounded."
I said, "It was worth it, Sir."
He said, "Listen to me, I am telling you that your friend is dead.
"Yes sir, I understand. But it was still worth it."
"How do you mean it was worth it?"

"It was worth it sir, because when I got to him, as he was dying, he looked up at me and said, "I knew you would come."


What a powerful story. I often feel like this. Sometimes its scary to be out here by myself. But I can promise each of you, my special family that this work is worth it. In the pre-existence, the people I'm teaching knew that they would be raised in circumstances that they wouldn't have the gospel. But I like to think that I put my hand on their shoulder and said, "Don't worry my friend... I'll find you. And I'll bring you back home." I love this work. I love being a "spiritual heart surgeon" or a "spiritual life guard." There are real people that need help even here in SLC that are suffering. And I love being a missionary. I love you all so much! Thank you for all your sweet letters and support. Till next week!!!

Elder James R. Ricks